10 Photos of Dead Criminals (with a Charlie Manson bonus)
Back in the 19th century, when photography was young, post-mortem images of dead loved ones was fashionable as a way to remember the deceased. But it also became a way […]
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Berkley-Penguin will publish ‘ShadowMan’
There are a few moments in a book’s life that are special for authors. One is when a box of finished books arrives on the front porch. Another is when […]
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Unfinished.
Once upon a time—which is how all worthwhile stories begin—I knew a man named Herman who had reached a moment when there was more of his life to look back […]
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40% of serial killers getting away with murder
The Golden Age of serial killers—the 1970s and ‘80s—is over. According to National Institute of Justice, the number of serial killers is down 85% in the past 30 years. Reasons […]
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10 Los Angeles Crime Facts You Didn’t Know
The darker side of a city built on dreams and illusions is sometimes obscured, sometimes elevated to mythic proportions. In a place where the words Manson, Night Stalker, and Black […]
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What if Huck Finn had helicopter parents?
Summer is over and you know what that means, right? No, not the start of school! It’s time for helicopter parents to lift off. Thanks to technology, these moms and […]
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5 Book Terms That Can Make You Sound Brilliant (or Stupid)
I’ve been astonished at the number of people who have expressed some trepidation about communicating with an author out of fear they’ll misuse a word (or never send fan letters […]
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Is true crime dead … or just choking on its own blood?
For many years, acquisition editors in New York have justified their rejections of true-crime manuscripts by saying, “Sorry, but true crime is on life support”—mostly as a way of letting […]
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What crime writers do I read? Here’s one
It’s one of the most common questions I get from a roomful of readers: Who’s your favorite author? Fact is, I don’t have just one. And they’re all over the […]
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All writers and readers share one profound thing
Our most profound ideas are often very simple. This one was delivered unto me by a humble, small-town Texas bookseller and scribbler as we sat among his stacks and stacks […]
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Place matters
For writers who grew up in the West the landscape is unconsciously woven into our storytelling. It’s natural because that’s what we know. And it’s the thing that makes our […]
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10 Creepy Places … Right Next Door to You
Maybe you’d like to take a casserole over to the new neighbors in the murder house? Maybe that kid in the serial killer’s old home could mow the grass this […]
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New York Times lists ‘Darkest Night’ as Wyo’s best true crime
Eleven years after it was first published by St. Martin’s Press, “The Darkest Night” is still getting attention. This week, the New York Times published a list of the top […]
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Lend me your ears! Audiobook of ‘Alice & Gerald’ is out
One of America’s most notable audiobook producers—Dreamscape Media—has just released the Audible audio edition of my newest true crime, “Alice & Gerald: A Homicidal Love Story“ (2019, Prometheus Books). The […]
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10 Mugshot Tips for Your Next Arrest
Police have taken mugshots of accused criminals almost since the beginning of photography. Why? So they’ll recognize you when you commit future crimes … and for their never-ending amusement. But […]
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Who’ll write the first true crime about murder in outer space?
It’s Hollywood sci-fi stuff. A simmering personal feud between two astronauts plays out across the frozen Martian crust … or maybe there’s a rape in the claustrophobic quarters of the […]
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Breaking: Confessed killer Gerald Uden pins murders on dead wife Alice
In the fall of 2013, seventy-somethings Gerald and Alice Uden lived on a farm in rural Missouri, set back a ways from the road and the rest of the world, […]
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Alice Barbier Uden (1939-2019)
I won’t try to eulogize Alice Uden. Her life sentence ended this week when she died at age 80, still being punished for one of the four—probably five—murders she either […]
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Before #MeToo, there was Fatty Arbuckle
Nine years ago, HBO announced that “Modern Family” star Eric (“Cam”) Stonestreet had been signed to play Hollywood’s most tragic funnyman Fatty Arbuckle in a new a biopic. Since then—and […]
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A half-century of Helter Skelter … and it isn’t over yet
Leslie Van Houten, one of Charles Manson’s concubines and mesmerized butchers, was denied parole on Monday by California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Van Houten was sentenced to be executed for her […]
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Miss V’s closing arguments
In the beginning there was Miss V. That’s how Mary Vandeventer was known to her high school English students, partly because it was easier than pronouncing her last name and […]
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10 Texas Crime Facts You Didn’t Know
Texas is so big that its long history of crime—from outlaw days to today—is damn near impossible to know completely. The hard part of compiling a list of 10 obscure […]
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The mystery of Harper Lee’s lost true-crime book
Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep (Knopf) is actually two parallel stories: One about a real-life 1970s murder mystery, and the other […]
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What’s in your DNA? Just a killer grandma? Or gold for exploiters?
At dinner recently with an IT professional, the conversation drifted into our inexorable plunge toward the mass retailing of our privacy—from intimate data collected by smartphones, Alexa, and your own […]
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